Mullen Lintas makes senior appointments

Ekta Relan has been appointed senior vice president and planning head, national brands and Garima Khandelwal has been brought on board as executive creative director.

Mullen Lintas, the recently launched creative agency of Mullen Lowe Lintas Group, has appointed senior management teams across cities. Announcing the new team, Amer Jaleel, chairman and CCO, Mullen Lintas, says, "I'm thrilled with the all-star line-up that Mullen Lintas has been able to assemble in such a short time. With this kind of firepower at the start, this team has the weight-class to rival the biggest and the best. I look forward to cutting our teeth into briefs and creating some great work together."

Ekta Relan has been appointed senior vice president and planning head, national brands. Based in Mumbai, Relan's mandate will include leading the strategic planning function across offices and brands for the agency. She comes on board with more than 15 years of experience in the insights and ideas business. Prior to Mullen Lintas, she was with Sapient Nitro Singapore for about two years, Unilever (India & Singapore) for seven years and Lowe Lintas for five years. During her career, she has handled a rich portfolio of brands such as Fair & Lovely, Pepsodent, Clear, Moet, Lux, Paddle Pop, Health Promotion Board Singapore, Continental Foods, MetLife and Eu Yan Sang.

Leading the creative art function for Mullen Lintas would be Garima Khandelwal who has been appointed executive creative director. Khandelwal, based in Mumbai, will drive the creative function on core brands for the agency.

In her last role, she was the group creative director at Lowe Lintas, where she worked for five years lending her creative expertise to a diverse client set across product categories. She has spent a total of 15 years in advertising and began her career with Ogilvy in Delhi. From there, she briefly migrated to Prague where she worked for Leagas Delaney, on the Skoda account for the European market. Some of the clients that she has been associated with include Suzlon Pals, Tata Tea (Kala Teeka), Axe (Boat Party) and Liva.

The business mandate for the Delhi office will be led by Syed Amjad Ali, who has been appointed executive director. Ali moves into this role from Lowe Lintas Delhi, where he spent 20 years in multiple business leadership roles, managing large client portfolios across product categories. He has led the business mandate for a host of clients including Maruti Suzuki, OLX, Havells, Micromax, Hero Motors, Dabur, Expedia, LG Electronics, Greenply, Woodland and ABP.

The business mandate in Mumbai will be led by Ayyappan Raj, who assumes the role of executive vice president. With this new role, Raj moves to Mumbai from Bengaluru, where he was heading a unit for Lowe Lintas.

He has spent the last eighteen years in advertising, handling business for Chennai and Bengaluru markets across a host of agencies including O&M, Lowe Lintas and McCann Erickson. With the ability to break down any complex problem to the simplest solution possible, Raj has offered effective solutions to a host of clients spanning different industries like automobiles, personal care, food and beverages, telecom, insurance and technology. A few prominent clients that he has worked on include Saint-Gobain, Vodafone, TVS Motors, Britannia, MetLife, Tata Tea and ITC Foods.

The Bengaluru business for Mullen Lintas will be driven by Kishore Subramanian who takes on the role of executive vice president. In his last role, he was head of Karishma Lintas in Bengaluru.

Subramanian is a finance professional who accidentally walked into advertising about 19 years ago. After learning the ropes in Grey, he moved on to Lowe Lintas where, over a period of twelve years across Mumbai and Bengaluru, he worked on exciting brands like Sonata, Tanishq, Fastrack, Kissan and Britannia, both as an account person and a strategic planner.

He followed it with a short crash course in Japanese work ethic, cars (Toyota) and culture at Dentsu, where he headed the Bengaluru operations. From there, he moved to JWT, in a strategic planning role, and worked across both the Delhi & Mumbai offices on the GSK and Godrej businesses.

Welcoming the new team on board, Virat Tandon, CEO, Mullen Lintas, says, "This is a dream team to start off with. Between them, they have shaped the biggest and the best brands in the country and internationally. With this formidable team, we offer clients caliber that is second to none. We can't wait to get going and showcase our prowess as the new creative startup to watch out for."